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Mathematician and poet Cai Tianxin told us about his childhood and the rural life in southern China in the 1960s and 1970s. In an era when both material and spiritual life were very poor, "I", who was skilled in chess and loved hand-drawn maps, spent a lonely and helpless childhood. However, curiosity and imagination eventually sowed seeds in the barren soil and accompanied the author throughout his adult life.

Historians and archaeologists believe that the first cities on Earth appeared in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, the Yellow River Valley and the Nile River. The Greeks founded city-states, which gave mankind early cultural and artistic life. I have been fortunate enough to visit the birthplaces of these first civilizations and visit ancient civilizations such as Phoenicia, Carthage, Persia, Maya, and Inca. The writing of this book benefited from the accumulation of travels year after year. This book tells the 26 cities I have visited in alphabetical order. Some of them are world-famous cities, such as New York, Paris, London, Barcelona, ​​Vienna, Zurich, Amsterdam, Istanbul, and Rio de Janeiro. Some are cities that are not easily accessible to Chinese travelers, such as Jerusalem, Casablanca, Damascus, Isfahan, Quebec City, Sarajevo, Toledo, Yerevan, etc. Some are personal preferences, including an ancient capital in China. The writing of this book is mainly based on personal travel, but also includes the history, culture, science, art, customs and customs of the city and the country where it is located. In addition to the 26 cities selected, each letter also lists a number of candidate cities that I have traveled to, a total of about 150 cities, and briefly describes the reasons for the candidates and those who were not selected. At the dawn of the new millennium, the American "National Geographic" magazine selected 10 cities worth visiting in a lifetime. Although I visited them one by one, only 7 were selected. Considering how few cities begin with some letters, I feel lucky to have completed this book. --Cai Tianxin

I have been asked many times, "Among the cities you have visited, which one is your favorite?" This seemingly simple question is difficult to answer, because I have visited hundreds of famous Chinese and foreign cities. Then one day, I got inspiration and slowly wrote a book "Counting from A to Z: My Favorite City". In other words, I chose twenty-six cities. Here we share with you five of them, borrowing their names from the Brics. Reasons for Barcelona (Barcelona) being selected: It is both the pride of Iberia and a heartache of the Spaniards; it is rich in football geniuses and painting masters, but it attracts tourists from all over the world with its unique architectural style. Time of travel: Summer 1995.

It was only ten minutes before I left the station on the timetable. I saw a pile of rubble outside the window, and I felt so desolate. --Inscription. On the afternoon of October 5, 1978, the weather was fine. I took the No. 7 Bus alone, leaving the Sixth Park beside the West Lake and heading to Hangzhou City Station. I had checked out of a hotel called Changzheng near Wulin Gate before, carrying a shoulder bag and wandering around the lake for a long time. Just two days ago, I traveled over the mountains and ridges from Huangyan, Taizhou, and took a long-distance bus for more than ten hours. I came to the provincial capital for the first time. My brother and sister-in-law rushed from Huzhou to the bus station to pick me up and spent a whole day with me visiting the West Lake.

The name of Waibaidu Bridge makes people imagine it wildly, but unfortunately there is no poem that can compare with "Bridge Mirabeau" in Paris, or even Xu Zhimo's "Farewell Cambridge". --Inscription. As spring passes and summer comes, every semester in college flies by. Soon, the first summer vacation came, and this was also the first time I went home to visit my relatives. A few days before the holiday, I was honored to be elected as one of the "Three Good Students". It was a secret vote of the whole class, but there was no material reward. At that time, the economic conditions only allowed me to travel by land or water. This was my first time to go home, and I carefully selected the transfer station. The final candidate cities were Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo. All three places have direct ships or buses to my hometown. In other places, such as the cities in southern Jiangsu, there were no direct buses to Taizhou at that time.

This is a "notebook" that records the author's travel and growth experiences over the past few years. In addition to sharing the journey, the author also includes a number of hand-drawn travel route maps. Every time the author returns from a trip, he will draw a travel route map to scale, indicating the time, direction, means of transportation, reasons and travel companions. Part of the travel route map will also be presented in the text of this book. The author has so far filled eight notebooks of different sizes. What's even more interesting is that this book contains 7 itineraries for foreign heads of state's visits to China in the 1970s, all of which were drawn by the author himself. The earliest one is the route of Richard Nixon's first visit to China. The author, who was 8 years old at the time, paid close attention to and hand-drawn the itinerary of the former US president's visit to China. Later, he followed the news reports in newspapers and recorded the visits of many foreign heads of state in that era.

Cai Tianxin, the author of "Traveling with Numbers and Roses", is a mathematician, poet, traveler and photographer. Over the years, he has walked between poetic romance and mathematical rationality. Travel is a bridge connecting sensibility and rationality. He has traveled to more than 100 countries and regions on five continents. Numbers, roses and travel are integral to his life. "If mathematics is a strong fortress, then poetry is a home that I can carry with me." This book contains 16 essays and 1 interview by Cai Tianxin, covering the fields of mathematics, art, history, geography, literature and other fields. The author also shares his travel trajectories and foreign experiences with readers. The book contains many of the author's photography works, most of which were taken during the trip. "Our colorful lives are made up of wonderful journeys one after another," Cai Tianxin wrote. "Writing is prophecy." "Poetry will take you to the place you long for."